арай

арай • (aray)

1. only, merely

арай • (arai)

1. hush, quiet

арай • (arai)

1. twilight
2. calm, tranquility

Cognate with Buryat арай (araj) and Kalmyk әрә (ärä), likely a variant of more widely attested Proto-Mongolic *aran.

Perhaps related to Common Turkic *hāz (if from earlier Proto-Turkic *hāŕ). Compare Daur araang (“barely, slightly”), Turkish az (“few, a bit”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

арай • (araj) (Mongolian spelling ᠠᠷᠠᠢ (arai))

1. a bit, slightly

   Antonym: илүү (ilüü)

2. barely

   Synonym: дөнгөж (döngöž)

3. hardly
4. almost, practically

   Synonyms: бараг (barag), дөхөм (döxöm)

• Accepted
  • → Evenki: арай (araj)
  • → Tofa: арай
  • → Tuvan: арай (aray)
• Less certain
  • →? Even: арай (araj, “oh, ow, suddenly, only”)
  • →? Yakut: арай (aray), →? Dolgan: арай

From Mongolian арай (araj). Cognate to Dolgan арай, Northern Altai арай (aray, “little, some”), Tofa арай, Tuvan арай (aray), etc. See the discussion in the Mongolian entry above.

арай • (aray)

1. only, merely
2. suddenly

арай • (aray)

1. (at the beginning of a sentence, with a negative connotation) what if, let's say